


Stalemate

by glymr



Series: The One Where [10]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-22
Updated: 2010-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-23 15:00:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/927873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glymr/pseuds/glymr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Superman is forced to decide which Batman he'd rather be with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stalemate

**Author's Note:**

> A series of unrelated stories, each based on a prompt that began, "The One Where..."

Superman looks from one of them to the other. Bruce, back in his cowl at last. Wonderfully. Miraculously.

And the young man Bruce mentored, graceful and beautiful, his own cowl hanging off the back of his head.

Bruce's eyes are hooded. Dick is biting his lip, looking at the floor and occasionally stealing glances at Bruce. He doesn't look at Superman at all.

On the screen behind Bruce plays the footage that none of them are paying attention to, now. The footage where Superman is kissing Batman...kissing _Dick_ , and saying 'Batman' over and over again. "Batman," comes his own voice, echoing eerily in the cave. "Batman, _Batman_ , I'm sorry, I shouldn't...I can't..."

"I know" whispers Dick in the past, kissing him back. "It's all right. It's all right."

Superman knows what comes next. He swallows. "Turn it off," he says. His voice is hoarse in his own ears.

After a moment, Bruce taps a button, freezing the image on the screen in all its vivid, awful clarity: Dick's eyes closed, his mouth sealed to Superman's. To Clark's.

"Bruce, I--" Dick says, reaching out to him. "It was just--"

Bruce shakes his head, his face expressionless. "You don't have to explain anything." He stands, his cape falling into place around him like a wall of fabric. He turns and walks toward the stairs.

Clark feels his heart constrict. Not now, not now that he's gotten him back. He can't lose him _now_. For an endless moment he watches as Bruce begins to climb the stairs, back straight and uncompromising. Then Dick swings around to look at Clark, his eyes wide and pleading and desperate with the same misery building in Clark's throat. The look snaps the paralysis, and Clark is across the room, hovering over the stairs and blocking Bruce's path before he realizes what's happening.

Bruce's expression is blank behind the cowl - his eyes might as well be the flat white lenses he hides behind. "Get out of my way, Superman," he says.

"No," says Superman, and sweeps him into his arms, off the stairs and into the air, so that Bruce will fall if he tries to fight. Of course, that doesn't stop him, and he nearly manages to slip out of Superman's grip before Clark can adjust his hold and kiss the other man.

"Stop," growls Bruce. " _Stop_. I'm not...the one you want."

"Bruce," says Clark, "You're everything I want."

Batman's eyes go wide behind his mask, then he frowns and turns to where Dick is standing, watching them. The young man's face is blank.

"Put me down," says Bruce quietly. This time Clark obeys, drifting down until their feet touch the ground before releasing the other man...who immediately pulls away and reaches out to Dick. "Dick..." he says.

Dick's eyes dart to his for a moment before sliding away to focus on Superman. Clark stops himself from reaching out for Bruce again. Bruce reaches for Dick for a moment longer before his hands close into fists and drop to his sides.


End file.
